Boring? Your livelihood today would be greatly improved had decisions been made differently from 1873-1913. Other fun fact is the 1892 Chicago World’s Fair directly inspired L. Frank Baum’s Emerald City. It also inspired Frank Lloyd Wright, Walt Disney — whose parents worked on it, and everything from foods you eat today to the very German cannons of the World Wars. Heck, even the very term “Midway Games” comes from that. One single event that had a shocking effect on so much of the twentieth century and no one seems to realize it.

FJMcCloud

January 7, 2017 at 3:16 am

“1892 World’s Fair”. Sorry, actually opened in 1893, but to commemorate 1892. Also known as the “Columbian Expo”. There’s a fantastic documentary DVD about it narrated by the late Gene Wilder. Chicago also has an Oz Park dedicated to L. Frank Baum.

TheFreakMachine

February 7, 2017 at 4:57 pm

@ FJMCCLOUD: are you trying to…educate me?

Scott Mclaughlin

January 5, 2017 at 9:50 pm

Maybe the witch didn’t tell Dorothy how to get home until she had fulfilled her destiny.

The way the described the gory moments in that book, I want somebody to make an R-rated remake of that book and maybe launch a series of R-rated Oz films a’la Deadpool. The only change I would suggest that instead of killing the Wicked Witch with water, she should be killed by fire much like the witches of historical past.

As much as I liked Oz the Great and Powerful for what it is, I do wish Sam Raimi make the sequel PG-13 than PG and make it a dark comedy. After all, a dark comedy/fantasy version of Oz would be more exciting.

It doesn’t really matter that Glinda didn’t tell Dorothy, since it’s all a dream anyway. 😉 Plus, even if you take it as is, Glinda probably wanted Dorothy to be the one to help all the others together and get them their heart and courage and so on.

I think what James is missing is that apart from “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” itself, the other books just aren’t solid enough to hold a film, which is why attempts at adaptation of them generally turn out poorly. That, and the wider world the books are set in is kind of hammy and over-cluttered, as compared to more thoughtful and better planned out fantasy worlds that Lewis and Tolkien would come up with later in the century.

the book is scary to kids now in the modern areas, back in the 1900 i dont think it was anything because violence was pretty common and more awful things were going on, would really love to see the original book version on film.

I may be the only person who really isn’t that enthralled by the 1939 movie. The effects and techniques were precious, but the way the characters INTERACT… um. Well anyway, the tales themselves seem amazing! These could indeed take back newer generations into great habits and I’m glad the characters are done justice at their source. Have you read this webcomic called Namesake? It’s amazing and it’s where I learned the Oz universe could be badass. =)

I would love to see a darker verion from Tim Burton. I think they could do one that is more serious but have some comedy in it that doesn’t come out as goofy. They can make it more PG or PG13 even. I do understand why no one has jumped on it. To me the story is old and isn’t something that can be done for real life times. It would have to be fantasy like. No place like home actually don’t sound too good anymore cause people don’t really feel safe anymore in their own towns these days. I am sure Kansas isn’t that great of a place now either. People would probably want to stay in that place and not want to come home. lol

I had a great “audio book” series back in the day which had the scenes you mentioned that weren’t in the movie. You listened to the cassette tape while flipping through the huge book (it was around A2 sized pages if I recall) with fantastic illustrations. I wish I still had it all but it got passed on to younger family members and has been lost to the depths of time.